Southgate residents want office employees off their streets, while city looks to add permits to El Camino

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An overview of a portion of the Southgate neighborhood shows a medical office complex at the corner of El Camino Real and Churchill Avenue near single-family residences where a yearlong parking permit trial began in December. (Google)

Some Southgate neighborhood residents are upset that Palo Alto officials are already talking about changing an experiment designed to make it easier for them to find street parking in front of their homes.

Under the one-year trial approved by the City Council last month, Southgate residents could get up to six permits to park on neighborhood streets while two medical office complexes would receive a limited number for their employees.

But some doctors in the two medical buildings have since complained that the city didn’t engage them before launching the experiment. And the buildings’ owners say they fear some tenants may decide to leave Palo Alto because the city didn’t issue enough parking permits for their employees.

A representative of the owner of one of the complexes said seven tenants received only 15 permits despite having about 70 mostly part-time employees. The complexes have a combined 15 parking spaces on site, which are not used by employees.

After hearing the complaints Monday, the City Council opted to not issue 15 additional transferable permits to employers of seven medical-related businesses at 1515 and 1681 El Camino Real, as recommended by staff.

But to give the businesses some relief, the council rejected staff’s recommendation to establish a two-hour time limit along two stretches of El Camino Real outside the office complexes that have roughly eight spaces. As a result, employees can continue parking there all day, although employers will have to buy daily permits for them.

Councilman Tom DuBois said imposing two-hour limits would just push more employees to park in the neighborhood. He also suggested asking Caltrans if it would allow permit parking on the west side of El Camino Real. That side of the street is primarily taken up by RVs, according to doctors who work at the complexes.

Of the 581 parking spaces in the neighborhood, 22 percent currently are occupied, according to the city. Residents say those numbers are misleading because many of the streets are so narrow it’s difficult for one vehicle to pass through if cars are parked on both sides.

Zoe Sarantis, who lives on the 1600 block of Portola Avenue directly behind the 1681 El Camino Real clinic, said emergency vehicles were unable to reach her address during a recent family emergency because cars were parked on both sides of the street.

Before the experiment, numerous Palo Alto High School and Stanford students also parked their cars on residential streets, Southgate resident Bob Stillerman said.

“What I’d urge you to do is put together a committee with representatives from businesses and residents and allow the remainder of the trial to complete and present a solution at that time,” Stillerman said.

The residents say the parking experiment was working and should be left alone through December, at which time changes could be suggested and implemented.

“These streets are lovely now, the way it was when I moved in, and our kids can walk along the street safely,” resident Keith Farrell said.

But the council unanimously decided to revisit the trial in June. If Caltrans, which owns and operates El Camino Real, meanwhile agrees to allow permitted parking on the west side, the council indicated it will issue the additional 15 permits to businesses with the intention that they park on El Camino.

Councilman Greg Scharff noted that if office tenants leave because of parking restrictions, the neighborhood could be in for a worse scenario because the complexes are zoned to allow multi-family housing units.

“If that was to convert to muti-unit housing, you’re going to have a lot more people parking in the RPP (residential preferred parking) program,” Scharff said. “We need to resolve this without losing the businesses.”

On Monday, the council is to consider modifying a parking permit program in the adjacent Evergreen Park/Mayfield neighborhoods. Staff is suggesting that the trial phase there be made permanent.

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